The 2nd Ed. Submarine Project Part I

While doing some detailed work on first edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons spells, I came across a spell that sparked my imagination. It was called "Glassee", a sixth level magic-user spell. Glassee let's you to turn metal, stone or wood transparent. The area turned is always up to 3ft. x 2ft., but the maximum thickness is determined by the material. You can turn up to 4 inch thick metal, 6 foot thick stone, or 20 foot thick wood. The transparency can appear to all, only the caster, or can be a one way view port. It struck me a strange spell, the sort you would gloss over if selected. But it got me thinking about what it could be used for.

The obvious was for covert observation, and seeing if there was a trap behind the wall, etc. But I had something a little grander in mind. What if you used it to build a submarine?

Or a whale tank, or whale a tank.

By enchanting different items, and then using a permanency spell, it is possible to create constantly functioning magical items. The guys at JADE do this all the time. We try to figure out different ways of creating things, from catapults to TARDISes (we actually think we figured that one out... I will do an article on it later).

I figured that 4 inches of metal would let you get to a pretty good depth if used on a Submarine hull. But a submarine is more than hull. It needed to be a ship: habitable, pilot-able, able to explore the deep, and of course defend itself (this is dungeons and dragons after all). But there simply weren't enough spells in first edition to get the job done. I needed to pull out the big guns. I needed Second Edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.

And these bad boys!

The 2nd Ed Wizard's Spell Compendium contains over 3500 spells. I figured I should be able to find what I need in there. With the magic side of my back ground material ready, I started to look into the mechanics of designing a functional submarine... And discovered I was way over my head!

I only have an English degree, and knew very little about engineering. I needed help figuring out where to begin.

This was going to take a while.

So, I spoke with the only engineer I knew, a friend of mine named Graham. Now Graham is civil engineer, but he told me that math is math and he could probably give me hand. Right off the bat, he helped get my project on track. He told me the first thing I needed to do was come up with the basic design of the outer hull, and come up with some idea of a maximum depth. From there we could figure out the size and structure of the hull.

So I asked our resident graphic designer Dave if he could give me a hand. Of course he was up for the challenge! My next steps are researching submarine design. The shape of my vessel will determine it maximum possible depth. I needed to do some base work so we could have a starting point.

Next time we will explore some possible designs and hopefully look at our maximum depth. And I can finally get this project off the ground... Or under the waves as the case may be.